Bruce Lee Abs Workout for a Bruce Lee Six-Pack Stomach

Bruce Lee Abs Workout

for a Six-Pack Washboard Stomach

“My strength comes from the abdomen. It’s the center of gravity and the source of real power.” – Bruce Lee

The most visually impressive of all Lee’s body parts were the famous Bruce Lee abs, with highly defined intercostal and serratus anterior muscles. Bruce Lee’s cobra-like lats and shredded biceps were ridiculously impressive, too, but nothing seemed as out of this world as his washboard stomach and ripped six-pack abs.

Disclaimer for our readers:

WorkoutLikeBruceLee.com is NOT endorsed or affiliated with Bruce Lee or any legal entity associated with him. This site is simply an academic evaluation, resource and criticism of historical information regarding Bruce Lee’s workouts, training, diet and exercise programs in relation to modern fitness programs. We are simply providing this resource, based on commonly available historical information about Bruce Lee, to the public.

Bruce Lee Ab Workout

for a Bruce Lee Six-Pack

Bruce Lee trained his abs daily using three of five core torso exercises. The following Bruce Lee ab workout showcases his original abdominal routine:

Frog Kicks (4 sets x 20 or “until exhaustion” reps)

Frog kicks work out the lower abdomen. Hang from a pull-up bar and raise your knees to your chest, then extend your legs straight out while keeping the torso at a 45-degree angle.

Weider Power Tower Ab Station

Leg Raises (4 sets x 20 or “until exhaustion” reps)

Leg raises developing lower abdominals. Lie back on a flat bench and grasp hold of the uprights. Raise your legs about 18 inches past parallel, and then lower them, under control, back to the starting position.

The Twist (4 sets x at least 50 reps)

The twist targets the oblique muscles (“love handle” area). Stand upright with straight shoulder-width feet. Holding a stick or light bar across the back of your shoulders, bend forward from the waist as far as is comfortable. From this position, turn from the waist (not allowing your hips to move at all) and try to touch the left end of the bar to your right foot. Then straighten up and repeat the movement, this time trying to touch the right end of the bar to your left foot.

Perfect Fitness Ab Carver Pro

This is not your dad’s old school ab roller. This six-pack kinetic energy ab device features an ultra-wide stabilizing wheel, rubberized non-slip ergonomic grips and foam knee pads.

Sit-Ups (4 sets x 20 reps)

Bruce Lee’s variety of the sit-up targeted his upper abdominals and intercostal muscles. He preached that somewhat high repetitions (15 to 20 reps per set) must be done to maximize the impact of Bruce Lee abs workout exercises. He used a special abdominal board with foot straps, but a sit-up is a sit-up, right? Lie down, bend your knees slightly, and then roll your torso upward until your chest is pressed firmly against your knees. Hold this fully contracted position for 1 or 2 seconds and then return to the starting position. Lee would also touch his left elbow to his right knee and on the next rep his right elbow to the left knee as he raised up.

“The proper way of doing sit-ups isn’t just to go up and down, but to curl yourself up; to curl your back up, like rolling up a roll of paper.” – Bruce Lee

Iron Gym Total Upper Body Workout Bar

Side Bends (4 sets x 50 reps)

Like the standing twist, the side bend develops the oblique muscles. Stand with feet wide apart and both hands at your sides. Grab a dumbbell in one hand. With knees locked straight, bend your torso directly to the side on which the dumbbell is held until the weight is level with your knee joint. Then slowly bring your body back to the erect position. Keep the elbow of the lifting arm straight. Do 2 to 4 sets of 15 to 20 repetitions on one side. Then repeat with the dumbbell in the other hand. Bruce Lee chose to exhale as he leaned to the side and inhale as he regained the erect position.

Remember, a Bruce Lee abs workout like the one above only strengthens the muscles, not shed or remove the fat around the stomach area. Sit-ups and frog kicks don’t help with weight loss. In order to get ripped like Bruce Lee ripped, you need Diet and Cardio Fitness, too. Also, many of today’s athletes and bodybuilders treat their abdominals like any other muscle and rest it at least 2 days after an ab workout. Your abdominal muscles are most likely comprised of resilient type 1 muscle fibers that can take a beating without getting sore, but just like training any other muscle group, abs tend to respond better to less frequent training. Calves are also Type 1 muscle fibers, but no one really does daily calf exercises.

Bruce Lee Dragon Flags for Defined Abs

In the early 1970s, Lee constantly tweaked his abs workout by inventing all new torso exercises. The most well-known of the self-created Bruce Lee ab exercises was the infamous “dragon flag.” Training with Bruce Lee dragon flags is one of the most hardcore ab strengthening exercises ever and is a notably advanced way to target the stomach and torso area. While lying on a bench, grab the uprights with both hands and raise your body, supported only by the shoulders. Then, with straight locked knees, do leg raises. While doing the Bruce Lee dragon flag exercise, make sure to raise your entire body in a straight line and don’t bend at the waist.

Bruce Lee doing a Dragon Flag

On the set of “Enter The Dragon” in 1973, Bolo Yeung, kung fu movie legend and Bruce Lee’s co-star, witnessed Bruce Lee perform dragon flags in front of a stunned cast and crew full of accomplished athletes, stuntmen and martial artists. None of them had ever seen or heard about the dragon flags before Bruce Lee did them that day. All of them were shocked at the core ab strength exhibited by the Jeet Kune Do master. Bolo says, “Bruce was able to keep himself perfectly horizontal in midair!”